Swept Away (1974) Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (original title)

Director:

Lina Wertmüller

Writer:

Lina Wertmüller

Release Date:

17 September 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A rich woman, Raffaella, and some friends rent a yacht to sail the Mediterranean Sea during summer. The sailor...

Plot Keywords:

Yacht | Machismo | Misogyny | Face Slap | Husband Wife Relationship

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Giancarlo Giannini	...	Gennarino Carunchio
Mariangela Melato	...	Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti
Riccardo Salvino	...	Signor Pavone Lanzetti
Isa Danieli	...	Anna
Aldo Puglisi
Anna Melita
Giuseppe Durini
Lucrezia De Domizio
Luis Suarez
Vittorio Fanfoni
Lorenzo Piani
Eros Pagni	...	Pippe

Directed by
Lina Wertmüller

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Lina Wertmüller

Produced by
Romano Cardarelli	....	producer

Original Music by
Piero Piccioni

Cinematography by
Giulio Battiferri
Giuseppe Fornari
Ennio Guarnieri
Stefano Ricciotti

Film Editing by
Franco Fraticelli

Costume Design by
Enrico Job

Makeup Department
Gino Zamprioli	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gianni Arduini	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Mario Bramonti	....	sound mixer
Giuseppe Muratori	....	boom operator

Production Companies

• Medusa Produzione

Distributors

• Cinema 5 Distributing (1975) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1979) (USA) (TV) (original airing) (dubbed version)
• Fox Lorber (1997) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Koch Lorber Films (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Koch Lorber Films (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)

Also Known As:

"Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto" - Italy (original title)
"Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August" - International (English title) (long title)

Runtime:

Italy:116 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | USA:R | Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Tortolì, Sardinia, Italy

Company:

Medusa Produzione

Quotes:

Gennarino Carunchio:One bitch up there, and another down here, and my friend The Sea turned traitor!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Vieni avanti cretino (1982)

Screwball Comedy, Italian Style

Back in the 1970's Lina Wertmuller was an art-house superstar. But more importantly, she was a first class original, bursting with a fresh, exciting vision.

Now, here's a lively storyline: a rich, racist, reactionary female- a right wing, fascist mind in a knuckle-biting, voluptuous body -is stranded on a mid-sea desert isle with a poverty-stricken, chauvinistic, Communist male- a left-leaning propagandist in a scrawny masculine body. "Make nice" they don't. Well, not right off the bat. Not before much nasty invective and grievous bodily assault take place. But then afterward....ahh, afterward.

SWEPT AWAY, though a foreign film, is in the manic, irreverent, well-timed tradition of Hollywood screwball comedies like THE AWFUL TRUTH(1937), MIDNIGHT(1939), THE LADY EVE(1941), and most emphatically, HIS GIRL FRIDAY(1940)- only with a shipload more profane repartee, orgiastic lust, and bone-crunching physicality than was ever permissible or desirable in those older classics. Throwing all vestiges of caution to the four winds, Wertmuller really surprises the viewer with her take on the battle of the genders strained through a volcanic political dialectic.

Upon its initial release many in the audience demurred strongly (and still do) as the male's dominance slipped into outright brutality. Certainly, Wertmuller can be accused of going too far, but never of boring us. Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangelo Melato are absolutely letter perfect: sulking, teasing, attacking, retreating, seducing, rampaging, abandoning. Their director spurs them through an emotional and physical gauntlet and they meet each dramatic challenge with winning artistry. You may feel wrung out by film's end. Or enraged. Or both. But you'll have quite a time.